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How we got the numbers
http://costofwar.com/numbers.html


Currently, the Cost of War calculator is set to reach $135 billion on September 30, 2004. This is the lowest estimate of what Congress has appropriated for the war in Iraq in two supplemental appropriations. The first, Public Law 108-11, signed on April 16, 2003, appropriated $79 billion, and the second, Public Law 108-106, signed on November 5, 2003, appropriated $87 billion. (The texts of the bills can be found through the Library of Congress? legislative database.)

The $166 billion appropriated in the two bills include Iraqi war costs, military and reconstruction costs for Afghanistan, and other miscellaneous items. A study in January by Steven M. Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments identifies $128 billion from these two supplemental appropriations that are directly related to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. To this figure we have added approximately $7 billion (included in the first supplemental) which was given as additional foreign aid to support neighboring countries, including Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.

There are others who believe that the monies in the two bills that will be spent by that date on Iraq are closer to $149 billion, but we have chosen to calculate for now based on the lower figure.

Another more wide-ranging analysis of war costs can the found at the Friends National Committee on Legislation?s website, authored by Col. Dan Smith (ret.).
Earlier Calculations

We had originally set the Cost of War calculator to actual military expenditures as announced by the Defense Department, plus what US officials have, in the summer of 2003, as the monthly cost of the occupation, $3.9 billion a month. We intended to adjust these numbers when the Defense Department released more recent figures on actual costs, but the Defense Department has frustrated the efforts of Congress and the American people (who are, after all, the ones paying for the war) by not providing information on what has been spent. As a result, we have been forced to rely on what the Administration has asked for and what Congress has allocated for military operations in Iraq.
Interest Costs

In our original calculations, we included interest costs, since the government is running a deficit and we consider these war costs unnecessary. They are not included in the current Cost of War calculations, however. For those interested in figuring the cost of the war in Iraq, including interest, they can take the current cost as displayed on our calculator and add 40% (so that if the Cost of War calculator lists the cost as $100 billion, the true cost, after 10 years of repaying the debt, would be about $140 billion).

Elias Vlanton and Niko Matsakis
Revised, May 23, 2004